The sauce of life

JEWISH Aussies can now take part in a time-honoured table tradition – giving their Rosella tomato sauce bottle the proverbial fair slap and shake, after a move by a local food manufacturer to make a range of kosher condiments.

It all began when the Sabrands company, owned by Melbourne couple Dan and Eva Presser, bought the rights to the Rosella brand last year after the 118-year-old Rosella company went into receivership.

Dan Presser, the voice spruiking his Sunraysia fruit juices on a series of offbeat radio commercials for Sabrands, told The AJN this week that he and Eva “never dreamed we’d own” the iconic Rosella brand, an Australian favourite that is some 30 years older than Vegemite.

In an age when Aussie kitchen-table legends like Vegemite and Arnott’s Biscuits are owned by overseas companies, the phoenix-like reprise of the crimson bird in Australia has been welcome news.

Yet Sabrands is doing a lot more than relaunching the Rosella name – the food products are now grown, produced and owned locally. Said Presser: “There were a lot of multinationals who wanted to make sure Rosella doesn’t come back.”

Presser, who is the executive chair of Sabrands, said producing a line of kosher foods under the Rosella moniker is not just a service to the Jewish community but caters to Muslims buying halal products. Additionally, the kosher concept “is seen in the mainstream community as a measure of quality”.

Manufacturing locally has also created around 40 new jobs in north-eastern Victoria and boosted employment in northern Tasmania, he said. “We’re no longer importing, we’re using tomatoes grown in the Goulburn Valley.”

Kosher products under the Rosella brand include vine ripened tomato soup, corn relish, garlic paste, ginger paste, tomato chutney – and that all-time favourite, bottled tomato sauce. Fair shake.

PETER KOHN